June 10, 2010

Subscribe

Creating Light Leaks on Photographs using GIMP

Light Leaks are a product of film in the camera being exposed due to a hole/gap in the cameras body letting in light. It is sometimes used aesthetically in photographs creating a sense of vividness or soft blurs of colour – usually red. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create these light leaks in the GIMP!

Making light leaks on Photographs in GIMP

1. Starting & Quick Masking

Firstly open your image that you’ll be applying the light leaks.

Using the Quick Mask we can select the areas where the light leaks will be, go Select –> Toggle Quick Mask (Shift + Q).

Starting and Quick Masking (Click to view larger)

2. Using the Gradient Tool:

a. Radial & Linear

Grab the Gradient Tool: FG Only – White and either Radial or Square Gradients.

Now, using the gradient mask around the edges of your image in the places you’d like to have the red/orange.

As shown below, it is ideal to use both Linear and Radial to precisely mask:

Using the Gradient Tool - Radial and Linear (Click to view larger)

b. Square

If you are in a rush – using the Square Gradient is ideal and covers each edge.

Written by Mike

Michael Scott is the publisher and photographer behind Scott Photographics! He is very passionate about his photography and enjoys sharing the best of his experiences for others to enjoy too! Contact Mike via email!

You should be able to use multiple gradients, make sure the Quick Mask is toggled (Shift + Q) and the radius of the gradient or lengths are minor adjustments.

The FG only, is just the way I say the gradient: foreground colour to transparent, eg. White (foreground) & Transparent (background).

Thanks,
Mike

Katie

Jun 14 2012

Hi, I don’t quite understand how to get the FG only tool…it isn’t an option on the gradients in my gimp. And, how do you select multiple places to set a gradient? It would only let me drag one line, and if I dragged another, the one previously laid would disappear. Thanks!

The quick-mask method is just an easier way. You could instead create a new layer, use the brush tool (with colour) to paint around the edges and however you like, and then change the mode of the layer to soft light or similar.

Tamsin

Mar 8 2012

I love light leaks! But is there any way to achieve a similar effect without using quick mask? Unfortunately, I have pphotoshop elements 8., which doesn’t have quick mask.

I have not experienced this before myself? Why is it not possible for you to save it as a .jpg? Does an error message appear?

Regards,

Mike

caroline

Jan 8 2012

this was great great help! however, i have a question. since uploading it as an .xcf file won’t work, what can i upload it as? i’ve tried png and a few others, but even if they do work, it doesn’t show the light leak layer, but the original image. any help? thanks. :)

Thank you so much for doing this! Although I have found that to colour a certain area, sometimes you need to invert the selection, not sure if that’s because I did something wrong, but i don’t really mind (:
I’ve been using it way too much so quickly!
Thanks!

you might have some troubles with the Gradient/Blend Tool – check settings: White, Reverse(I use both directions for different angles), Radial. Also check out my gradient lines, that should achieve the rounded edges. However the selection is feathered so it doesn’t matter too much what shape it looks.

If those do not work you could try another method:

Duplicate layer, set top layer to color, then adjust to desired colours, and use a mask White, and use the gradient tool with FG: Black to leave only the corners in that colour.

If that isn’t the problem, then comment below or email me!

Thanks,

Michael

Megan

Jul 14 2010

Hi! I absolutely love what you’ve done with this photo and the light leaks. I’ve tried several times to follow the tutorial, but instead of lighting the edges it turns the center the hints of red that I want on the edges. Also, in your tutorial it shows the edges being rounded for the color effects and I can’t get mine to do that. What am I doing wrong?